Tool Carousel to Support Agricultural Rover Soil Testing

Abstract

A tool carousel was designed and fabricated to meet the needs of an agricultural rover autonomously conducting various field tests. The carousel was designed to meet high precision and reliability needs with relaxed speed and space constraints. The carousel is about the size of the rover. It can hold twenty tools at a time that can be up to 1 kg each. The rover can approach the carousel from any direction and will direct the carousel to do a 30 s homing procedure with the intent to then exchange tools. The primary sensors are the Intel RealSense 435i camera and the tool-detecting current sensor both established on the rover, as well as limit switches for tool detection on the carousel.

With polished fabrication and completed code implementation, the tool carousel will be fit for field testing.